By Barbara Boyer
The Philadelphia Inquirer
PHILADELPHIA — An intensive manhunt is underway in the Northeast for a lone gunman who shot dead two Loomis armored-truck guards and wounded another in a robbery attempt.
The men who died were both retired police sergeants. Their identities have not been released pending notification of next of kin.
Police said they hoped to release a surveillance tape later today to enlist the public’s help in capturing the gunman.
Nearby schools in the Rhawnhurst neighborhood - including Northeast High - were put into lockdown as police scoured the area.
A tape shows that the gunman was sitting in a black car before the truck arrived at a Wachovia branch. He can be seen putting on a pair of black gloves, said authorities, who speculated that he was familiar with the truck’s route and schedule.
Mark Clark, vice president of communications at Loomis’ corporate office in Houston, said the three guards “were veteran employees. They’ve worked for us for a number of years.”
Clark said the three were servicing an ATM machine at the Roosevelt Mall. Following procedure, Clark said, two men left the vehicle to work on the ATM while the third remained inside. Clark said the assailant shot and killed the two at the ATM and then began firing at the vehicle, which was in the 7300 block of Bustleton.
None of the bullets penetrated the vehicle, but the impact produced some shards of chipped glass and injured the guard inside.
“We have not had a employee shot and killed for many, many years,” Clark said.
A Loomis employee was shot earlier this year in an incident in Las Vegas and is now recovering, Clark said.
The ambush occurred shortly after 8 a.m. at the Wachovia branch near Bleigh and Bustleton Avenues, a busy commercial area in the Rhawnhurst section of the city.
The bank is at the rear of Roosevelt Mall, and many of the stores inside make their night deposits at the branch.
Barbara Nate, a spokeswoman for Wachovia Bank, said the branch where the attempted robbery occurred was not open at the time, although some employees may have been inside preparing for the start of the business day.
Nate said Loomis was a subcontractor to Wachovia assigned to refill ATM machines in the region.
“Clearly, our prayers go out to the victims’ families,” Nate said.
Kathy Paul, 44, who lives nearby, heard the gunshots and initially thought they may have been firecrackers. She soon realized differently as the sounds of sirens flooded the area.
“In this neighborhood, anything can happen,” she said.
Police recovered an empty money bag from the rear of the Turf Club on Bustleton Avenue, just north of Cottman.
Investigators also are gathering surveillance tapes from nearby businesses.
Preliminary reports were that police were searching for two men and two women, who may have participated in the crime or at least witnessed it, but at a hastily called news conference two hours after the attempted robbery, police said they were searching for only one gunman.
At the news conference, police said the two guards who were killed were outside the truck. The third, inside the vehicle, suffered a graze wound and was taken to a nearby hospital.
The first guard shot was standing by the automated teller machine. The other guard was by the truck, police said.
Copyright 2007 Philadelphia Inquirer